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It can appear on the field in the form of a clutch hit late in the game, a perfect throw to the plate, am up-against-the-wall circus catch.

Or it can come in quiet times, in one-on-one conversations.

Jose Bautista has done all that and more this season, the clear-cut leader on a first-place team.

The other day, in the post-game scrum with Kevin Pillar, the hero of Monday’s victory thanks to his RBI single in the ninth that supplied a walkoff win over Minnesota, the young outfielder spoke of how earlier in the day Bautista spoke to him about the hardships of being a part-time player, offering advice and a pep talk rolled into one.

Leadership or lack of same wasn’t an issue in Tuesday’s game against the Twins.

J.A. Happ and a missing offence were.

The Jays lefty battled his command throughout his abbreviated stint that lasted just 3.2 innings in what turned out to be a dreary 4-0 loss to the Twins.

It was the Jays third defeat — all shutouts — in the past four games but they go for the series win Wednesday afternoon with rookie Marcus Stroman on the mound.

The Jays had opportunities in the opening two innings but couldn’t deliver and overall went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“That’s baseball,” manager John Gibbons said of the three-car-collision shutout. “We didn’t see that coming. Naturally as hot as we were you’d figure we’d cool off a little bit. That’s baseball, that’s the way it goes sometimes. When you’re not hitting, you’re not scoring runs and you’ve got to match ’em on the mound and we didn’t do that.”

Happ (5-3) didn’t have much as he walked the first batter and served up a two-run homer to the next — Brian Dozier — to quickly fall behind 2-0.

In the fourth, he had the bases loaded and nobody out and almost escaped as he struck out Kurt Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar. But then the speedy Danny Santana hit a slow bouncer up the third base line. Juan Francisco came in and attempted to make the barehand grab and throw. He got to the ball but with Santana already crossing first he made an ill-advised throw that sailed high and bounced into the seats allowing two runs to score.

While Happ had a rough night, Chad Jenkins came on in relief and blanked the Twins on one hit over 3.1 innings.

Bautista’s thinking regarding Pillar was that given how he had broken into the big leagues as a part-time player, a player coming off the bench, he could relate to what Pillar is going through and perhaps could lighten the load and help him deal with his stress level.

And who knows how it might pay off over the long haul?

“These are the things that are going to make him stay here which is not necessarily going 3-for-4 when he gets the one start a week that he might be getting,” Bautista said of the Pillars of the baseball world. “I think it’s more being fundamentally sound, executing when he gets a situational at-bat. If he’s got to bunt somebody over, make sure to get it down and get it done. When you get to pinch-run and they give you a steal, don’t miss the sign, if it’s hit-and-run, don’t miss the sign. It’s not necessarily doing well every single time, Just don’t make mental mistakes, be prepared, be ready to go, pay attention to the coaches and situations and do not look out of place like a deer in the headlights.

The fact that Bautista has been there, done that caries more weight.

“Yeah, for a long time,” he said of being a part-time player in the past. “I understand perfectly (where he’s coming from) and I understand where he might be mentally and that’s exactly why we were chatting a little bit. I could see where he felt that I knew exactly what he was talking about and he identified with my comments because I mean I’ve been there. There’s no denying it’s the same situation.”

Did he see anything in Pillar that prompted the discussion?

“He was just talking in the cage and our hitting coach was there. I mean we kind of all engaged in this conversation,” Bautista said “I don’t want to make a big deal of it. You’re like I only get to play once a week, I’ve got to make the best of it. That thing right there sparks thoughts and memories in my head. I used to say the same thing, I used to think I needed to get three hits just to play the next day. I’m not saying that’s what he thinks but that comment just sparked a memory in my head in order to help him not be so hard on himself.

“It’s hard to make that situation easy because it’s not. When you play once a week and you put that much stress on yourself like you’ve got to, got to, got to — most of the time you don’t get the result that way. You should be focused more on the process and the effort, not the result. The situation that he’s in makes you obsessed about the results and then you don’t get it, your focus is not on the effort and where you should be.”